A SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT 3-14 JUNE 1992

On 14 June the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development concluded the work mandated to it by the United Nations
General Assembly more than two and a half years earlier in
Resolution 44/228. When President Collor of Brazil officially
concluded UNCED, the hundreds of diplomats, NGOs, support staff and
Secretariat members who had worked together from Nairobi, through
Geneva and New York, to Rio de Janeiro had not only contributed to
one of the most significant international negotiation processes,
but had individually participated in the creation of a elaborate
programming tool that could set the planet on a new course towards
global sustainable development.

Although the road to Rio began with UN Resolution 44/228 in
December 1989, the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee took
place in August 1990. PrepCom I, which was held in Nairobi, set the
terms of reference of the UNCED. At PrepCom II, held in Geneva in
March 1991, the voluminous documentation provided by the
Secretariat assisted states to address key issues and to prioritize
these areas where action was needed. The first signs of the actual
form of UNCED's products first revealed themselves here. At PrepCom
III, which took place in Geneva in August 1991, governments debated
the best ways to approach the problems and commenced negotiations,
for the first time, on Agenda 21. Finally, at the fourth PrepCom in
New York, delegates met to negotiate and finalize the technical
portions of Agenda 21 and the other political instruments that were
expected to be signed in Rio de Janeiro.

By the end of PrepCom IV, 85% of Agenda 21 had been successfully
negotiated and free of brackets. Major outstanding issues included
finance, including all of the "Means of implementation" paragraphs
in each chapter of Agenda 21; technology transfer, atmosphere and
forests among others.

Against all odds, progress was achieved in New York. However, much
work remained to be done. Thus, government officials and ministers
in Rio had to conclude in two weeks, what hundreds of diplomats
could not resolve over the past two years. What was expected to be
a two-week gold-pen cum massive photo opportunity quickly evolved
into the most critical negotiation session.

In Rio, the Conference itself was divided into two main bodies: the
Plenary and its subsidiary body, the Main Committee. The Plenary
was the forum for the "General Debate", which consisted of country
statements delivered at the Ministerial level. By contrast, the
Main Committee was site of the actual political negotiations, in
essence, a "PrepCom V." The mandate of the Main Committee was to
finalize the products of UNCED: Agenda 21, the Statement on Forest
Principles and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
Those areas in need of substantive negotiations to remove the
remaining bracketed text were forwarded to contact groups
established by Main Committee Chair Tommy Koh, of Singapore and his
Bureau. The eight contact groups were: Atmosphere,
Biodiversity/Biotechnology, Institutions, Legal Instruments,
Finance, Technology Transfer, Freshwater Resources and Forests
(including both the Statement on Forest Principles and the Agenda
21 chapter on forests). During the seven days of intense
negotiations, the mood oscillated dramatically from issue to issue
and day to day. The entrance of ministers and other high ranking
politicians into the negotiations alternatively improved the pace,
as they were able to make the necessary decisions, and impaired the
process as they were often unaware of the history of the issue
within the UNCED context. When the Main Committee ran out of its
allotted time at 6:00 am on Thursday, 11 June, three issues still
had not been resolved: forests, finance and atmosphere. These
issues were forwarded for further negotiations at the ministerial
level where, at the eleventh hour, agreement was finally reached.

The following report is an issue-by-issue summary of the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development as reported in
the Earth Summit Bulletin. To facilitate understanding of
this complex set of negotiations, the topics are arranged in the
order that their chapters appear in Agenda 21, the Statement of
Forest Principles and the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Declaration.